Project Zero 2 – review

Saturday 7 July 2012 19.05 EDT
First published on Saturday 7 July 2012 19.05 EDT

It's nearly a decade since Project Zero 2's original release (with the "Crimson Butterfly" addendum), arriving during a voguish period for ghostly Japanese horror – The Ring, The Grudge, Silent Hill etc. Set apart from the pack, this tidied-up Wii remake – Nintendo still ignoring pleas to call them "Wiimakes" – is easier to appreciate: a mournful corridor-stalker that forces players to engage with its spectral terrors.

The premise, made more unsettling by lost-in-translation logic and creepily stilted English voiceovers, sees twin sisters Mayu and Mio exploring a village emptied by an unseen tragedy. What stops this from being another bump-filled haunted house is the camera obscura, which enables Mio to exorcise angry spirits by literally capturing them on film. It's a brilliant touch. In a genre normally built on escaping danger, Project Zero makes thrilling, wide-eyed confrontation your only hope.